An Excuse to Drink: A Memoir
*Disclaimer* This is a personal experiment and I will never condone this level of drinking and do not recommend. But, if you insist, be of…
*Disclaimer* This is a personal experiment and I will never condone this level of drinking and do not recommend. But, if you insist, be of age and don’t drunk dial your ex.
Continuing our conversation of creativity, let’s do a simple experiment together. The sketches that you are about to see are no where near what I would ever want them to be, but serve as a reference, kind of.
I often get stuck in the procrastination/perfectionist hole that seems to destroy every last shred of creativity. I get an idea and think of all the ways it could be created and what I want to say…and then I NEVER touch it again. I think to myself, there’s no way I can do that, or the infamous, I just don’t have time.
When we have our eyes set on a huge project, we can find it hard to think of any meager step that could get us there. We would rather do nothing at all than attempt something and fail. But, can art ever be failure if we look at it as a subjective form of experimentation?
I challenge you to try art experimentation. It is science after all. Even if you show absolutely no one, not even your cat; the act of play can be far better than the completion.
So, for my first experiment, or warm up; question if you will. I wanted to see what would loosen me up to the idea of being uncomfortable and okay with not being perfect at drawing.
Cue the alcohol.
Science, baby.
There have actually been studies that challenge the effect alcohol has on our cognitive processes.
Many a famous artist, writer etc. have mentioned drinking as part of their creative process. I always grew up thinking this was just an excuse to drink, but there may be something behind it. The man idea of alcohol and creativity lies in our working memory. The more working memory we develop, the better at analytical tasks we become; however, this may also decrease performance with creative thinking.
A small study has shown that when alcohol is introduced, individuals are able to solve more creative word problems, in less time. So essentially, Hemingway was right in drinking all the time.
This study may suggest that alcohol can generate more “outside the box” thinking. I personally didn’t want to sit here and do creative word problems, so I decided to do a very simple sketch.
My “What if” Rules
Question: What if I tried to draw at different levels of intoxication?
Alcohol: Wine (Trader Joe’s $6 red wine)
Medium: Graphite 4B pencil
Method
Draw a control before drinking
Stop after one bottle of wine
1 glass (4 standard drinks)
Draw 20 minutes after each 1/2 glass
Draw after 2 hours when finished with bottle
Allow two minutes to draw each eye
I embarked on my wine fueled journey on a Tuesday evening and decided to draw something I am reasonable average at: an eye. To make the stakes a little higher, I added a bit more detail with a wave scene in the pupil of the eyeball. Wine not.
No Drinks
My control drawing, sans alcohol, came out pretty okay. I did a quick cross-hatching to identify shading and tried to add as much detail as I could within the two minutes.
Yay, Wine!
I didn’t want to drink alone per say, so a half glass in and I was already on my Instagram posting about the experiment. Gotta love our desire to be accepted.
Full disclosure. I am a lightweight, so I already started to feel the alcohol after the first half glass. I noticed I wasn’t as worried about the shape of the pupil already.
Ultimately, the shape and elements of the drawing were the same so I’d say the alcohol didn’t hit me too much. The cross-hatching was a bit more rigid than I like.
Sassy Sally
I started to feel it. While the components of the eye are the same, the shape of the eye is already starting to look different, a very sassy different.
The eye itself doesn’t look horrible and I can still tell it’s an eye with a wave. I drew over the outer eye multiple times in this drawing. I also spilled wine.
Beginning of the End
I really tried. The idea was there, but it is very fluid. I should have realized how tired wine would make me. There’s only another half glass to do.
Go Home
It may not be as pretty. But, drunk me wanted to add the dots of wine to the piece and I’m not mad about it. I was feeling loose and I think my work is a great representation of my emotional state at this moment. I did call my friend and yes, I did cry.
2 Hours Later
I was still buzzed, but the rush of wine definitely started to settle and I think this was a little bit better than the final drunk drawing. Fin.
Final Thoughts
There is no question that alcohol definitely has an influence. Shapes were not as easy to draw and I left out different elements the more intoxicated I became. It was interesting to see what elements I found important when drunk compared to how I usually draw.
I tended to overdraw the eyeball itself and used very fragmented lines while drawing the outer edges of the bottom lid. I will say though, the eyebrow looks pretty awesome on all of these drawings.
I do believe that I had more “outside the box” thinking while drawing in these two minute segments. When very intoxicated, I wanted to represent how I felt instead of keeping it crisp and clean. I also had less reservations about how precise the cross-hatching was or how long the eyelashes were.
It definitely made my drawing a bit more free, which I enjoyed. Keeping this looseness into my future creations may help me create a whole new piece, so I hope to go back and use this lucid drawing idea.
Recreate it Yourself
You can do this without alcohol.
Try drawing something simple with your non-dominant hand to start. Except you, you ambidextrous jerks, you just need to blindfold yourselves.
Start with a simple shape or item and move to a bit more detailed image each time you do this.
Another exercise is drawing without looking down from a mirror or away from a photo. Taking away part of your attention helps develop a looseness in your work.
For more tips on loosening up, click here.